So the wine tonight was a Jackson-Triggs white label Cabernet / Merlot. The white label is their "Proprietor's Selection" and is not a VQA wine. My parents came over for dinner tonight, and dad was in charge of the wine.
The Vintner's Quality Alliance (VQA) is the essentially Ontario and British Columbia's wine watch dog, ensuring wines come from where you assume they come from (based on the label), quality standards are met, and what's on the label is the same as what's in the bottle. For these reasons, I tend to stick with VQA wines when buying Canadian wine, however as long as you aren't fooled by the whole "cellared in Canada" thing (basically meaning that the grapes or juice used to make the wine could come from ANYWHERE (most often Chile or California) and was blended with something local and bottled here), there are some perfectly acceptable and extremely budget-friendly wines to be enjoyed.
This is a very easy drinking and food friendsly wine. It is very commercially appealing, and for that reason I feel it lacks the charm and personality of a really wonderful bottle. I seem to recall that a signifigant portion of the wines used in this blend come from Chile. I found it to be a beautiful rich ruby colour an I enjoyed how the jammy fruit tones of the merlot brought out the depth of flavour in the angus steaks, while the spicy pepper notes of the cab enunciated the salty tones from the cheddar smashed potatoes. This isn't a wine I would consider for a "house" wine, however to keep 4 people's glasses full on a tight budget, and considering you can generally pick it up at the grocery store, it does the trick. The 1500 ml bottle runs around $17 and would make a very affordable non-food wine to be enjoyed around a table with friends.
Until next week... cheers!
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